Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eDIRTTRACK AM! 600a National Dirt Track Series: Final round Severa l riders went down on the next lap. and the red flags came o ut. The race was contin ued with a single file restart. Stanley, Dur elle a nd Melton nell went th e di stan ce, in th at orde r. ta ki ng th eir tickets to the Na tional, whi le Rick Hockin g. Eklund, J amie Aguil ~r and J ohn Cla yton III went to a serru, After a restart, th e fourth a nd fin al heat race was underway with J u nio r Steve Ma yfield o ut in front of Aar on Hill , J oe Kopp , J ohn Wincewicz a nd J e££ Annen . On lap two, H ill £lew by Mayf ield for good. and a lap la ter Wincewi cz also passed Mayfield. Out front. H ill had increased his lead to 60 yards. Mea nwhi le, Annen was all over Mayfield. trying everywhere to get by. With less than a lap to go . Annen went u nder Mayfield for the last d irect transfer pos ition. Going to th e semi were Ma yfi el d . Rex Fis her , R icky H enson a nd J .P. Simonsen. I ~ 0') .... Q.) ..0 o ..... u o Team Harley-Dav idson's Chris Carr turned in a near-perfect performance at the Castle Rock TT. (L to R) Aaron Hill, Carr, Dan McDonnell, Joe Kopp, Dave Durelle and Mickey Fay competed in the Budweiser Shoot-Out. One more time forCarr at Castle Rock By Derryl Anderson Photos by Dave Hoenig CASTLE ROCK, WA, SEPT. 21 ea m Harl ey-Da vidson' s Chris Carr wra pped u p h is fourth co nsecutive AMA 600cc Na tional Ch a mpionship in grand style with a win a t the series-end ing TT, held at th e Castle Rock Fairgr ounds. The 24-year -old factory rider fro m Valley Springs , Cal ifornia , entered the fin al round with a l 3-p o int lead over Eaken -Sponsell e r Ra cing-back ed La rry Pegram , wh o had a slim cha nce of dethronin g Carr, bu t Carr had o ther ideas and ca p ped off th e seri es with a near-p erfect evening in front of an estima ted 5000 spectators. Carr started o ££ th e eve n ing by ' sett ing fast qual ifyin g time , a nd then he went on to win th e fastest heat race, and la ter run away wi th the main event win o ver Aaro n Hill and Northwest favorit e Mickey Fay. The o nly fla w in Ca rr ' s ni ght wa s a second pl a ce show ing in the Budweiser Shoot-Out, a $3000 five-lap dash-for-cash , where H ill out-das hed the perennial cha m p ' to score the lion 's sha re of the pri ze money. Ca rr pock eted $2975 for his main event win, and an additional $500 in th e Budweiser Shoot-Out. " I t's ni ce to wi n a fourth cha m pio nsh ip," sai d Carr. " Bu t what I' m focusing on is the Camel Pro Ch ampi onship. I'm go ing to have to rid e as hard as I possibly can to win ." With just two Camel Pro Series rounds T 24 remaining on th e schedule. Carr holds a sli m o ne-point lead over th ree-tim e Grand National Cham pion Scott Parker. Time trials Fift y-five Expert and J unior rid ers turned in tim e trial laps, wi th th e fa st est 48 m ak in g th e even i n g 's program. Carr bl itzed around the track a board th e Kenn y To lbert- tu ne d fa cto r y ' Harl ey-Davidson to pos t a 22.27 second lap time, .61 seconds faster than last year 's fast tim e. Second fastest honor s went to Fay a t 22.38. Filling out th e last two spots for pole pos ito ns in th e heat races, were Donahue HarleyDavidson 's Dave Dur ell e a t 22.51, and Spokane. Washington 's J oe Kopp a t 22.53. Heats Carr chose th e in side pol e pos ition for the fir st of , four six-lap heat races th at wo u ld ad vance th e top three fini sh ers to th e main even t, while fourth through ni nth place fin ishers headed for a sem i-fin al. Carr stole the ho leshot a nd never looked back. as he continued to str etch his lead over Charlie Brown a nd La rry Pegr am. wh o was lu cky to even be in the National after blowi ng hi s engine the night before. . "My motor blew u p at last night's Regional ." explain ed Pegram. "We borrowed a motor from J.P. Simo nsen , and Skip (Ea ken) had to mak e it fit in our fra me." Meanwhile. Speedy Kell was co ming - o n stro ng after a poor start. By lap four, Kell was a ll over Randy Roo se, a nd a la p la ter slid under Roose and went gunni ng for Pegram. Kell was right o n Pegram's rear fender wh en the checkere d flag came out fo r Carr, wh o was lon g gone. Carr . Brown a n d Pegram advanced to the fina l, wh ile Kell , Roose, Ron Yam am ot o a nd the others headed for a sem i. T he second heat was led from sta rt to finis h by Andy T resser , wh o was followed very closely by Fay, Junior co mpetitor Mark Smi th, Del Sch ni tzer a nd the others. On lap fou r, Fay closed th e d istance on Tresser, a nd the cro wd came to life as Fay tried Tresser o n the outside of turns three and four. Twice, Fay pu lled up next to Tresser, but he co uld n 't q u ite get by: At th e chec kers, it was Tresser, Fa y and Smith transferring to the main a nd Sch nitzer. Kris Kiser, Mike Sullivan and Don Wilson go ing to a semi. Kir k Stro ng co ntrolled the initial lead in the third heat, follow ed by Dan Stanley. Du relle, Dan McDonnell . Pa ul Iwanaga a nd J e££ Eklund. The top four riders rod e uncomfortably close, but after two laps, Stanley a nd Du rell e found their way past Strong. Semis Two sem i-fin al races were run with only the winner from each adva nci ng directl y to the National final. T he firs t go . saw Kiser wi th th e scratch over Ro ose, Yamamot o. Sullivan , Ste ve H yson and Troy No rr is. Once again, Kell came fro m way back. mounting a n impressive cha rge. By lap five. Kell was up to th ird and charging hard. bu t hi s rea r tire went fla t, T he rest of th e positions remai ned the same, a nd Kiser too k the only transfer to the National. The secon d sem i got underway wit h a battle involving Hocking. Henso n . Mayfield and Simonsen . For th e next six laps, the fou r rid ers ran wh eel- towh eel , but no one was abl e to make a pas s stick. Man y tim es they were sideby-side. but sti ll no passing occurred. At the finish . Hocking too k th e ticket to th e National. Last ch a n ce qualifier In the do-or-die last chance quali fier, Mayfield got the hol esh ot ahead o f Simonse n. H yson. Ek lu nd. a nd No rr is. Si monse n was u p next to Ma yfield on the ou tside severa l tim es but co uldn' t get by. The sta rti ng or der freight-train ed righ t to the checkered £lag wit hou t a ny cha nges, wi th May. field the winner. Budweiser Shoot-Out . Hill o ut -sc ra tc he d Fa y. Carr , Durelle, McDonnell a nd J oey Kopp o££ th e line at the sta rt o f th e $3000 Budweiser Shoot-O u t. Hill pulled ou t a fair lead , while Carr battled wi th Fay for fou r laps befor e ge tti ng by. Fay' s engine th en went dead a nd he dr opped ou t of the-race. At th at point, Hill had bu ilt up an uncatch abl e lead . Carr sta rted to close th e ga p , but tim e ra n out and the chec kered £lag gree ted a jubil ant Hill. A straigh taway behind the two fro nt- ru n ners. came Kopp , Durell e a nd McDonnell. Junior main The l2 -fastest Juniors wh o did not make th e Junior/Expert Nati onal lined up for the Junior main event. After o ne restart. it was J e££ Eklu nd getti ng the holeshot over David Anderso n. Cory Perreault, Steve H yson , Mike Dillon a nd J ames H art. On la p four, Hy son slid out in turn o ne a nd Simo nsen had to lay it down trying to m iss the fall en Hyson. The red flags came o ut and everyo ne lined up on th e track for a sin gl e file restart. After some repairs. H yson a nd Sim onsen both made the restart at the back of the pack. Eklu nd once again to ok the lead pos ition, follo wed by And erson, Perreault, Dill on , Aguilar, Hart and Troy Rose. With two laps to go. Hyson was black-flagged and the final po sitons were set. At the finish it was Eklund

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